The Most Important Meal

Six days of ordinary and way day of fancy, that’s how I grew up. From Monday through Saturday we ate simple meals, nothing fancy, but on Sunday we had soup, salad, roast, or tongue, or rotisserie chicken, or something else of my Mama’s kitchen wizardry, all followed by desert. In the late afternoon that was complimented with Kaffee (coffee) und Kuchen (cakes and other various baked delicacies). Which one of the meals during any given week was the most important? Which one was one was unimportant? I can tell you to my four brothers and I the vote for most important would have been for Sunday, hands down, no contest. However, invariably we needed food on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. There wasn’t a day when food was not important, when we did not get hungry. In fact most everything in our house was eaten, leftovers did not last, and almost nothing was thrown out. Every meal fed us, helped us to grow, enabled us to function, gave us energy, sustained us.We were lucky enough, blessed, to never go hungry; we always had something to eat. I do not remember a day without food, my parents made sure of it. My Dad worked his tail off; my Mom was frugal, grew a garden, canned, juiced, baked and cooked. I don’t remember ever worrying about food.So what is this pastor’s note about? It’s about spiritual food, reading, hearing, studying, and meditating on the word of God. Jesus said “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4 (NLT). You and I privileged to live without any shortage of God’s word. It is available to us, in print, audio, electronic forms, and at churches everywhere. Now when is the word of God more important, on Monday, or Tuesday, Wednesday, …, or on Sunday? Of course it is important every day if we want to be strong, if we want to grow, if we want to be wise, mature, godly, Christlike, all that God means for us to be. Sunday might be the day for the fancy meal the preacher had time to cook up all week, it might be the highlight, soup, salad, main course, desert, Kaffee und Kuchen, but come Monday the spirit, soul, and mind will need to be fed as much as the stomach and body.My grandson cannot feed himself yet, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to eat every day. He can’t even open the refrigerator, but the day will come when you can’t keep him out of it. On his way from having to be fed to becoming a fridge raider he will make messes, spill things, look awkward handling eating utensils, but he will get there. He will get there not because he has just one fancy meal on Sundays, but because he is eating daily, because he pays attention to the needs of his stomach and body, because he will have had lots of practice. How many of the meals will he remember? Very, very few, but he will be a product of all that he has eaten. We are a product of all that we have eaten, all that we eat.So what is this pastor’s note about? It is about encouraging you to daily read, study, and meditate on the word of God, the Bible. It is about Monday through Saturday and the fancy meal on Sunday (or some other day you regularly attend church). It is about paying attention to what Jesus said is absolutely important. It is about being strong in spirit, soul, mind, and body. It is about growing, become mature, being godly. It is about being able to feed yourself. It is about starting and being committed to daily read, think upon, and living the word of God. O, I hope you do.To God be all glory, Pastor HansP.S. If you need help getting started please contact me.